(Another!) Deposit dispute

[Jhawc24]

Firstly, I do have another unrelated deposit thread from 2014, this relates to a different tenancy held in my name on behalf of daughter!

 

 

Just ended a tenancy where we had resided for four years. We had some issues with mould throughout the property and felt that the LL or agents were doing nothing to resolve the problem. We gave notice, and thoroughly cleaned the property and had all the carpets professionally cleaned.

 

 

Tenancy ended on the 26th March, we met with a LL's representative at the property on that day, who went around the property with my partner and expressed that he was satisfied with the condition and he also discussed the mould in detail, that there had been problems with it previously and that he was going to clean it up and decorate over it. Also the agents representative met us around the same time, did not do an outgoing inventory, took the meter readings and the keys and quickly left.

 

 

Assuming that there was no issues we waited until the 6th April and then requested repayment from the DPS of our deposit. And we waited, we noticed on the 25th that the deposit has had a dispute issued. DPS emailed and advised to contact the LL/agent to liaise with regards to this.

 

 

My partner has emailed the agent, requesting details of the dispute, despite them having all the forwarding address details, email and phone number he also requested as to why no-one has come forward to discuss any issues.

 

 

No signed ingoing inventory done, but a inventory was handed over at the start of tenancy, and of course no outgoing inventory, so we are at a loss as to what the issues are. We have taken photos of the mould, and photos of each room prior to leaving.

 

 

We will now wait 7 days for a response from the agents, and then go down the ADR route?

 

 

I am grateful for any comments or helpful advice.

[mariner51]

All you can do is participate in ADR as required. LL should advise any deductions planned, with supporting evidence.

[Jhawc24]

So finally have received a letter from the agents with the following proposed deductions from the deposit. Conveniently the letter received today is dated the 29th March 2015.

 

 

First deduction £400 - for fixing of the shower cubicle the state that 'our daughter broke it'. We emailed them in November 2014 due to the waste had come away from the base of shower and it could no longer be used. We said nothing about our daughter breaking it .... We presumed it was bad workmanship, however they never suggested at any point after that email that we would have to pay for repair, but did state that they would get it repaired it never was!

 

 

Second £180 deduction - for wallpaper in some areas which were ripped and damaged beyond repair, and a dent in wall (not sure where this was). There was some scuffing to areas of wallpaper which did indeed need repair - the wallpaper wasnt matching all the way round and could have easily been patched. We had been in the property 4 years with no decoration being done in that time, and it was a 3 bed family home, so would have thought that this is down to fair wear and tear.

 

 

Third deduction £100 - for cleaning of black mould from the bathroom and bedrooms and other areas in the property. They suggest this is down to poor ventilation. The mould issue was brought up by us previously, it damaged some of our furnishing etc. Despite complaining nothing was done about it and that is the main reason we gave notice. The LL rep who went around the property on key handover stated that the mould problem had been there for some time and he had previously cleaned and painted over it.

 

 

Any thoughts gratefully welcome.

[citizenB]

If you have brought these issues to their attention previously (and have retained proof/emails) and they are issues that could have been addressed at the time, then I am not sure they can make these deductions.. can they ?